we have new challenges before us. and i would say that the piece of information left out by the gentleman is the fact that it was his party that controlled congress during some of the period in which you cite the job loss. in fact, there have been 3.6 million jobs lost just since january of 2009. i would say to the gentleman, as far as the stimulus bill that you speak of -- >> would the gentleman yield on your assertion? >> i will yield at the end of my statement. and what my point is that the stimulus bill that passed almost a year ago, there's growing consensus here that it was not sufficiently targeted towards job growth. and in fact, even the portion of infrastructure spending that the gentleman and his party and this white house decided upon, the design of that spending, the associated press has come out with a study indicating that it did not grow employment at the local level in the communities which we represent. so if we understand and know that that is not the way to grow jobs, that is the design of the stim